The point man for Mayor Mitch Landrieu's effort to steer more public spending toward minority- and women-owned businesses is out after less than two years on the job. Norman Roussell resigned Aug. 31 from his post as director of the Office of Supplier Diversity, where he managed City Hall's "disadvantaged business enterprise" program.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu

His two-sentence resignation letter to Aimee Quirk, his boss and Landrieu's economic development adviser, provided no explanation for his exit.

Landrieu spokesman Ryan Berni said compliance officer Arkebia Matthews is now acting director. He didn't give a reason Tuesday for the switch, and Roussell didn't respond to requests for comment.

Roussell has been off the payroll for more than a month, but his absence surprised some leaders in the city's business community this week.

The city's two business chambers on Tuesday didn't know he had left. No one in the administration had told Patrice Williams-Smith, president and CEO of the New Orleans Black Chamber of Commerce, and her organization had worked well with Roussell, she said.

Williams-Smith added that Landrieu should quickly pick a permanent replacement.

"They were certainly moving in the right direction," she said. "I think that the mayor has kept his promise that there would be a DBE department and that it would be a vibrant department."

Landrieu hired Roussell in December 2010 to lead City Hall's push to raise the percentage of public contracts awarded to companies from historically disenfranchised communities, and according to what he told a City Council committee in February, he had achieved some success. Last year, his office added 36 companies to the city's list of certified DBEs. It also helped raise the level of DBE participation in public contracts to 32 percent, double what it was in 2010 -- though still shy of the council's target of 35 percent.

Before joining Landrieu's administration, Roussell ran the nonprofit Capital Access Project Inc., which he founded in 2001 to help businesses owned by women or minorities land public contracts.

"I was thrilled that he was picked" to head the city's DBE program "because he really gets it," said Phyllis Cassidy, a retired certified public accountant who works for another DBE-focused nonprofit, the Good Work Network.